In October 2024, Sandra Marcela Ramirez Ubate, an environmental engineer from Colombia, joined Danida Fellowship Centre’s Solid Waste Management and Technology learning programme that took place in Denmark. Discover her perspectives.
Compiled by Elena Adamo
Perhaps you have already met Sandra Marcela Ramirez Ubate. The first time we featured Sandra was in September 2024, when she was planning her trip to Copenhagen where she was to take part in Danida Fellowship Centre’s Solid Waste Management and Technology learning programme as part of the sector collaboration between Copenhagen Cirty and Bogotá on waste management.
Watch the first steps in a waste management revolution in Bogotá
Sandra works in Colombia at Superintendencia de Servicios Publicos Domiciliarios, the Colombian government’s agency responsible for overseeing and regulating public utility services such as the water supply, energy, sanitation and waste management.
Her mission in Copenhagen? To bring back ideas related to monitoring, data collection and reporting that would foster a cultural shift back home: ideas that would encourage people to rethink waste as a valuable resource in alignment with a zero-waste policy.
Are you curious about her journey? Let’s dive into her photo diary! Click on the date and link below to read about Sandra Ramirez Ubate´s day by day learnings and reflections during her time in Denmark.
7/10/2024 – Day 1, Week 1: How to help people and organisations see waste as a valuable resource.
At the Danish Technological University (DTU), the atmosphere buzzes with energy as Professor Anders Damgaard launches the learning programme. In the room, Sandra joins a group of 21 participants from 6 countries (China, Colombia, Ghana, Indonesia, Kenya, Thailand) all eager to share experiences and goals.
When it is Sandra’s turn, she is clear on her mission: to identify ideas—not one-size-fits-all solutions—that can inspire the development of new approaches to waste management that can be applied in Bogotá as a model for the rest of Colombia. Her focus is to get ideas on how to facilitate a cultural shift to help the population see waste as a resource.
Her takeaway of the day: “It’s not about copying another model,” she says, “but about discovering what could work uniquely for my city.”
